On the Colouring Matters of Flowers

Abstract

THIRTY or forty years ago I devoted much attention, to the colouring matters in plants, studying them with my newly invented spectrum microscope. I published a few papers on particular branches of the subject, but there are other very wide questions the importance of which I did not perceive until altered circumstances led me to devote my attention to work out at sea. Amongst other things studied was the variation in the colour of flowers, which is manifestly a very extensive subject, and for which I had only limited opportunity to obtain the requisite material, having to rely to a great extent on, wild plants and flowers in my garden. Though the results are incomplete, they are probably characteristic; and it may be well to publish them, since it is now impossible for me to complete them, and what I did will at all events serve to show what might he done. The whole subject is very complex in more ways than one.